PAPAL TWITTER HANDLE NOW OFFICIAL: @PONTIFEXIt’s been a busy three days for the Holy Father but the news that has everyone atwitter is Pope Benedict’s new official handle at Twitter: it is @pontifex and you can learn what this is all about by going to https://twitter.com/Pontifex
According to Claire Diaz-Ortiz, Twitter's director of Social Innovation, at the start of Monday’s press conference announcing the Pope’s handle, 11 people were following: at the end of the conference (just after 1 p.m. over an hour later), there were 14,000 followers.
I checked the Internet about 4 p.m., and there were over 81,000. Now, at 7:25 p.m., as I am about to post this column, that number is 175,529!
The first tweets from the Pope at his new handle will be sent on December 12, feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, towards the end of the weekly general audience. Throughout the world, during live television coverage of the audience or via Internet, people will be able to watch the Pope personally post a tweet or two. He will respond to questions on matters of faith that the faithful will send in up to December 12 via #askpontifex
Initially, tweets will be published with the Wednesday general audiences, although they may subsequently become more frequent, appearing during an Angelus, papal homily or some special papal event or liturgy. Greg Burke, in his first appearance as media advisor to the Secretariat of State, said the subject and frequency of tweets would always be up to the Holy Father.
Other communications officials at today’s jam-packed press conference included Archbishop Claudio Maria Celli, president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, Msgr. Paul Tighe, council secretary, Fr. Federico Lombardi, director of the Holy See Press Office, Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center, and Professor Gian Maria Vian, editor of 'L'Osservatore Romano' . 
The Pope will personally write some tweets, whereas most will be written for him, but all 140-character messages will be approved by him.
Msgr. Tighe said, the @)pontifex account is the only official papal Twitter feed. Greg Burke said no additional or special security arrangements have been taken to prevent the account from being hacked. He said Twitter staff seem to be able to care for all their celebrity clients.
The @pontifiex handle is the English language handle. In addition to English, tweets will also be published in the following languages: Spanish @pontifex_es; Italian @pontifex_it; Portuguese @pontifex_pt: German @pontifex_de; Polish @pontiff_pl; Arabic @pontifex_ar and
French @pontifex_frAsked why there was no Chinese language account, Fr. Lombardi said that an entirely different technical system is used in China, although Chinese expatriates – “the diaspora” – would be able to access it and the Vatican is looking at this possibility.
Other languages may be added in the future. The majority of questions at today’s press conference – no matter the native language of the journalist asking the question – were asked in English.An English-language communiqué on the papal Twitter account noted that, "The Pope's presence on Twitter is a concrete expression of his conviction that the Church must be present in the digital arena. ... The Pope's presence on Twitter can be seen as the 'tip of the iceberg' that is the Church's presence in the world of new media. The Church is already richly present in this environment – there exist a whole range of initiatives from the official websites of various institutions and communities to the personal sites, blogs and micro-blogs of public church figures and of individual believers.”
Other Vatican Twitter feeds include Holy See and Vatican news @news_va_en; communications @PCCS_VA; and the social network site (Youtube, etc) @Pope2YouVatican.
PAPAL NEWS BRIEFS – HOW DOES HE DO IT?!
SATURDAY – CIRCUS PERORMERS: At midday today in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall, Benedict XVI received the participants in the pilgrimage of the "World of Itinerant Performers", promoted on the occasion of the Year of Faith by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, in collaboration with the diocese of Rome and the "Migrantes" foundation of the Italian Episcopal Conference. Thousands of circus performers, fairground workers, puppeteers, acrobats, street performers, musical band members, mechanical musicians, folk groups and pavement artists were present.
SATURDAY – MOTU PROPRIO ON CHARITY: The Vatican published Pope Benedict XVI's Apostolic Letter issued "motu proprio" on "The Service of Charity", dated 11 November 2012. A note said, in part: "'The Church's deepest nature is expressed in her three-fold responsibility: of proclaiming the word of God (kerygma-martyria), celebrating the sacraments (leitourgia) and exercising the ministry of charity (diakonia). These duties presuppose each other and are inseparable." …In view of this, with the present Motu Proprio I intend to provide an organic legislative framework for the better overall ordering of the various organized ecclesial forms of the service of charity, which are closely related to the diaconal nature of the Church and the episcopal ministry.”
SATURDAY – SENTENCE IN VATILEAKS TRIAL: This morning the tribunal of Vatican City State issued its sentence in the trial against Claudio Sciarpelletti, charged with complicity in the "Vatileaks" case: "The Tribunal rules that the defendant Claudio Sciarpelletti is guilty of the offence of assisting in the elusion of the investigations by the Authorities and therefore sentences him to prison for four months.” Sciarpelletti has decided not to appeal his sentence.
SATURDAY – FIRST VESPERS OF ADVENT: At 5: 30 p.m. in the Vatican Basilica, Benedict XVI presided at first Vespers for the First Sunday of Advent with academics from the Roman and pontifical universities on the occasion of the beginning of the academic year.
SUNDAY – ANGELUS FOR FIRST SUNDAY OF ADVENT: Sunday, as the Church began a new liturgical year, the Pope explained to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square for the Angelus that "the word 'advent' means 'coming' or 'presence'. In the ancient world it indicated the visit of the king or emperor to a province; in the language of Christianity it refers to the coming of God, to his presence in the world; a mystery that involves the entire cosmos and all of history, and with two culminating moments: the first and the second coming of Jesus Christ."
SUNDAY – ANGELUS: PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: At the Sunday Angelus, the Pope noted that Monday, "we celebrate the International Day for Persons with Disabilities. Each individual, with his or her physical or psychological limits, including those of a serious nature, is always of inestimable value and must be considered as such. I encourage ecclesial communities to take care to welcome these brothers and sisters of ours, and urge legislators and governors to protect those with disabilities and to promote their full participation in the life of our society as a whole."
MONDAY – PRESS CONFERENCE ANNOUNCES PAPAL TWITTER HANDLE: Senior Vatican communications officials presided Monday at press conference was held this morning in the Holy See Press Office to explain the presence of the Pope on Twitter and to provide additional information on the use of the new media in the Vatican.
MONDAY – ADDRESS TO VENERABLE ENGLISH COLLEGE: This morning Benedict XVI addressed members of the Venerable English College of Rome, the Catholic seminary for the formation of priests from England and Wales as it celebrates its 650th anniversary. It has its origins in an ancient English hospice that accommodated British pilgrims to Rome. He told guests, including Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, “you have heard much talk about the new evangelization, the proclamation of Christ in those parts of the world where the Gospel has already been preached, but where to a greater or lesser degree the embers of faith have grown cold and now need to be fanned once more into a flame. ... Fire in sacred Scripture frequently serves to indicate the divine presence. ... Just as a small fire can set a whole forest ablaze, so the faithful testimony of a few can release the purifying and transforming power of God’s love so that it spreads like wildfire throughout a community or a nation."
MONDAY – MAN IS MORE THAN HUMAN CAPITAL, POPE TELLS COUNCIL PLENARY: Pope Benedict addressed the members of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace as it meets in plenary session, telling them that, "Man is nowadays considered in predominantly biological terms or as 'human capital', a 'resource', part of a dominant productive or financial mechanism. Although we continue to proclaim the dignity of the person, new ideologies - the hedonistic and egotistic claim to sexual and reproductive rights, or unregulated financial capitalism that abuses politics and derails the true economy - contribute to a concept of the worker and his or her labor as 'minor' commodities and undermine the natural foundations of society, especially the family. In fact, the human being, .... transcendent by comparison to other beings or earthly goods, enjoys true supremacy and responsibility for himself and for creation. ... For Christianity, work is fundamental for man, for his identity, socialization, the creation of a family and his contribution to peace and the common good. For precisely this reason, the aim of access to work for all is always a priority, even in periods of economic recession.”
SYNOD ON EVANGELIZATION: FINAL PROPOSITIONS 19 AND 20
**Proposition 19 : NEW EVANGELIZATION AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT
The Papal Magisterium in its social teaching demonstrated the theological, anthropological and educational bonds between evangelization and the development and freedom of both the person and society.
Today it is not possible to think of the New Evangelization without the proclamation of full freedom from everything that oppresses the human person, i.e. sin and its consequences. Without a serious commitment for life and justice and the change of the situations that generate poverty and exclusion (cf. Sollicitudo rei socialis, 36) there can be no progress. This is particularly true in the face of challenges of globalization.
**Proposition 20 : THE NEW EVANGELIZATION AND THE WAY OF BEAUTY
In the New Evangelization, there should be a particular attention paid to the way of beauty: Christ, the “Good Shepherd” (cf. Jn 10:11) is the Truth in person, the beautiful revelation in sign, pouring himself out without measure. It is important to give testimony to the young who follow Jesus, not only of his goodness and truth, but also of the fullness of his beauty. As Augustine affirmed, “it is not possible to love what is not beautiful” (Confessions, Bk IV, 13.20). Beauty attracts us to love, through which God reveals to us his face in which we believe. In this light artists feel themselves both spoken to and privileged communicators of the New Evangelization.
In the formation of seminarians, education in beauty should not be neglected nor education in the sacred arts as we are reminded in the teaching of the Second Vatican Council (cf. Sacrosanctum concilium, 129). Beauty should always be a special dimension of the new evangelization.
It is necessary that the Church be vigilant in caring for and promoting the quality of the art that is permitted in the sacred spaces reserved for liturgical celebrations, guarding both its beauty and the truthfulness of its expression.
It is important for the New Evangelization that the Church be present in all fields of art, so as to support with her spiritual and pastoral presence the artists in their search for creativity and to foster a living and true spiritual experience of salvation that becomes present in their work.
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